Corto, told he has no line of fortune on his palm, carves one himself with a razor, insisting his destiny is self-authored rather than inherited. The gesture frames identity as something declared against the evidence given to you, not read off from origins or signs.
A protagonist who claims no nation, cause or permanent loyalty can move freely among rival factions and judge each on its own merits rather than by allegiance. Detachment here is not emptiness but a vantage point: not belonging is what lets him act on principle instead of side.
The stories locate meaningful action in the unstable edges of empires and wars (contested ports, failing colonies, remote frontiers) rather than in centers of power. The mechanism is that where authority is thin and contested, individual choices still bend outcomes, so freedom and danger concentrate at the periphery.
Corto's recurring companion Rasputin is a murderous, treacherous mercenary who repeatedly turns on him yet keeps returning as an ally, and Corto keeps accepting him. The pairing shows a working relationship sustained not by trust or reform but by mutual usefulness and a shared refusal to pretend the other is good.